Getting a college education is a 20-year investment. When you're growing up poor, you're not accustomed to thinking that far ahead. Instead, you're thinking about where you're going to get your next meal and how your family is going to pay rent that month. Besides, my parents and my friends' parents seemed to be doing just fine driving taxis and working as janitors. It wasn't until I was a teenager when I realized I didn't want to do those things. By then, I was two-thirds of the way through my education, and it was almost too late to turn things around.
Dobiti fakultetsku diplomu je 20-ogodišnje ulaganje. Kad odrastate u siromaštvu niste navikli razmišljati tako daleko u budućnost. Nego razmišljate o sljedećem obroku i kako će vaša obitelj platiti stanarinu taj mjesec. Osim toga, činilo se da je mojim roditeljima i roditeljima mojih prijatelja sasvim dobro kao vozačima taksija i podvornicima. Tek sam kao tinejdžer shvatio da ne želim raditi te poslove. Do tada, bio sam na dvije trećine svog obrazovanja i bilo je skoro prekasno da promijenim situaciju.
When you grow up poor, you want to be rich. I was no different. I'm the second-oldest of seven, and was raised by a single mother on government aid in Queens, New York. By virtue of growing up low-income, my siblings and I went to some of New York City's most struggling public schools. I had over 60 absences when I was in seventh grade, because I didn't feel like going to class. My high school had a 55 percent graduation rate, and even worse, only 20 percent of the kids graduating were college-ready.
Kad odrastate siromašni, želite biti bogati. Isto je sa mnom. Rođen sam drugi od sedmero djece, odgojila me je samohrana majka na državnoj pomoći u Queensu, u New Yorku. Zbog odrastanja u siromaštvu braća, sestre i ja išli smo u neke o njujorških najproblematičnijih javnih škola. Imao sam više od 60 izostanaka u sedmom razredu jer mi se nije išlo na nastavu. U mojoj srednjoj školi 55% učenika maturira i još gore, samo 20% djece koja su maturirala bilo je spremno za studij.
When I actually did make it to college, I told my friend Brennan how our teachers would always ask us to raise our hands if we were going to college. I was taken aback when Brennan said, "Karim, I've never been asked that question before." It was always, "What college are you going to?" Just the way that question is phrased made it unacceptable for him not to have gone to college.
Kad sam ja zaista dospio na studij rekao sam prijatelju Brennanu da su nam učitelji govorili da dignu ruku oni koji će ići na fakultet. Zapanjilo me je kad je Brennan rekao, "Karim, mene to nikad nisu pitali." Uvijek su pitali: "Na koji ćeš fakultet ići?" Zbog načina kako je to pitanje postavljeno bilo mu je neprihvatljivo da ne ide na fakultet.
Nowadays I get asked a different question. "How were you able to make it out?" For years I said I was lucky, but it's not just luck. When my older brother and I graduated from high school at the very same time and he later dropped out of a two-year college, I wanted to understand why he dropped out and I kept studying. It wasn't until I got to Cornell as a Presidential Research Scholar that I started to learn about the very real educational consequences of being raised by a single mother on government aid and attending the schools that I did. That's when my older brother's trajectory began to make complete sense to me.
Danas me pitaju drugo pitanje. "Kako si se uspio probiti?" Godinama sam govorio da sam imao sreće, ali nije samo sreća. Kad smo stariji brat i ja maturirali u isto vrijeme i poslije je on prekinuo dvogodišnji studij, htio sam razumjeti zašto je on odustao, a ja sam nastavio učiti. Tek kad sam upisao Cornell kao stipendist počeo sam učiti o vrlo stvarnim obrazovnim posljedicama odgoja samohrane majke na državnoj pomoći i pohađanja škola u koje sam ja išao. Tada sam u potpunosti shvatio put starijeg brata.
I also learned that our most admirable education reformers, people like Arne Duncan, the former US Secretary of Education, or Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach For America, had never attended an inner city public school like I had. So much of our education reform is driven by a sympathetic approach, where people are saying, "Let's go and help these poor inner city kids, or these poor black and Latino kids," instead of an empathetic approach, where someone like me, who had grown up in this environment, could say, "I know the adversities that you're facing and I want to help you overcome them."
Također sam saznao da naši najizvrsniji reformatori obrazovanja, ljudi kao Arne Duncan, bivši ministar obrazovanja SAD-a, ili Wendy Kopp, osnivačica programa Teach For America, nikad nisu pohađali siromašne škole u centru grada kao ja. Toliko obrazovnih reformi pokreće suosjećajni pristup u kojem ljudi govore: "Pomozimo ovoj djeci iz centra grada, ili ovoj siromašnoj crnoj i Latino djeci", umjesto empatičkog pristupa kad bi netko poput mene, tko je odrastao u ovom okruženju, mogao reći: "Znam s kakvim se neprilikama susrećeš i želim ti pomoći da ih prevladaš".
Today when I get questions about how I made it out, I share that one of the biggest reasons is that I wasn't ashamed to ask for help. In a typical middle class or affluent household, if a kid is struggling, there's a good chance that a parent or a teacher will come to their rescue even if they don't ask for help. However, if that same kid is growing up poor and doesn't ask for help, there's a good chance that no one will help them. There are virtually no social safety nets available.
Kad me danas pitaju kako sam uspio, kažem da je jedan od najvećih razloga to što me nije bilo sram pitati za pomoć. U tipičnom bogatom ili kućanstvu srednje klase, ako dijete ima poteškoća, velike su šanse da će mu roditelj ili učitelj pomoći čak i ako ne pitaju za pomoć. Međutim, ako to isto dijete odrasta siromašno i ne pita za pomoć, velike su šanse da mu nitko neće pomoći. Gotovo da nema dostupnih društvenih sigurnosnih mreža.
So seven years ago, I started to reform our public education system shaped by my firsthand perspective. And I started with summer school. Research tells us that two-thirds of the achievement gap, which is the disparity in educational attainment between rich kids and poor kids or black kids and white kids, could be directly attributed to the summer learning loss. In low-income neighborhoods, kids forget almost three months of what they learned during the school year over the summer. They return to school in the fall, and their teachers spend another two months reteaching them old material. That's five months. The school year in the United States is only 10 months. If kids lose five months of learning every single year, that's half of their education. Half.
Stoga sam prije 7 godina pokrenuo reformu našeg javnog obrazovnog sustava, oblikovanu mojom perspektivom iz prve ruke. I počeo sam s ljetom školom. Istraživanja kažu da bi se dvije trećine razmaka u postignuću, što je nejednakost u obrazovnom dostignuću bogate i siromašne djece ili crne i bijele djece, moglo izravno povezati s ljetnim gubitkom naučenog. U siromašnim četvrtima djeca zaborave gotovo tri mjeseca gradiva naučenog tijekom školske godine preko ljeta. Na jesen se vrate u školu, a njihovi učitelji ih još dva mjeseca ponovno uče staro gradivo. To je pet mjeseci. Školska godina u SAD-u je samo 10 mjeseci. Ako djeca gube pet mjeseci svake godine to je pola njihovog obrazovanja. Pola.
If kids were in school over the summer, then they couldn't regress, but traditional summer school is poorly designed. For kids it feels like punishment, and for teachers it feels like babysitting. But how can we expect principals to execute an effective summer program when the school year ends the last week of June and then summer school starts just one week later? There just isn't enough time to find the right people, sort out the logistics, and design an engaging curriculum that excites kids and teachers.
Ako su djeca u školi preko ljeta, tada ne mogu nazadovati, ali tradicionalna škola je loše osmišljena. Djeci se čini kao kazna, a učiteljima kao dadiljanje. Ali kako možemo očekivati da ravnatelji provedu učinkovit ljetni program kad školska godina završi zadnji tjedan u lipnju, a ljetna škola počne samo tjedan dana kasnije? Nema dovoljno vremena za pronalazak pravih ljudi, rješavanje detalja i osmišljavanje zanimljivog kurikuluma, uzbudljivog djeci i učiteljima.
But what if we created a program over the summer that empowered teachers as teaching coaches to develop aspiring educators? What if we empowered college-educated role models as teaching fellows to help kids realize their college ambitions? What if empowered high-achieving kids as mentors to tutor their younger peers and inspire them to invest in their education? What if we empowered all kids as scholars, asked them what colleges they were going to, designed a summer school they want to attend to completely eliminate the summer learning loss and close two-thirds of the achievement gap?
Ali što ako stvorimo program preko ljeta koji bi osnažio učitelje kao trenere učenja da osposobe nadahnute edukatore? Što ako osnažimo fakultetski obrazovane uzore kao kolege u poučavanju da djeci pomognu spoznati volju za studiranjem? Što ako osnažimo djecu s visokim postignućima kao mentore mlađim učenicima i nadahnemo ih da ulažu u svoje obrazovanje? Što ako osnažimo sve učenike kao stipendiste, pitamo ih na koje fakultete će ići, osmislimo ljetnu školu u koju žele ići da posve uklonimo ljetni gubitak naučenog i zavorimo dvije trećine razmaka u postignuću.
By this summer, my team will have served over 4,000 low-income children, trained over 300 aspiring teachers and created more than 1,000 seasonal jobs across some of New York City's most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Do ovog ljeta, moj tim je radio s preko 4000 djece iz siromašnih obitelji, trenirao više od 300 nadahnutih učitelja i stvorio više od 1000 sezonskih radnih mjesta u nekima od njujurških najsiromašnijih četvrti.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
And our kids are succeeding. Two years of independent evaluations tell us that our kids eliminate the summer learning loss and make growth of one month in math and two months in reading. So instead of returning to school in the fall three months behind, they now go back four months ahead in math and five months ahead in reading.
I, naša djeca uspijevaju. Dvije godine nezavisnih procjena govore nam da naša djeca uklanjaju ljetni gubitak naučenog, napreduju u matematici za mjesec dana, a u čitanju za 2 mjeseca. Zato umjesto da se vrate u školu u jesen tri mjeseca u zaostatku sad se vrate četiri mjeseca unaprijed iz matematike i pet mjeseci unaprijed u čitanju.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Ten years ago, if you would have told me that I'd graduate in the top 10 percent of my class from an Ivy League institution and have an opportunity to make a dent on our public education system just by tackling two months of the calendar year, I would have said, "Nah. No way." What's even more exciting is that if we can prevent five months of lost time just by redesigning two months, imagine the possibilities that we can unlock by tackling the rest of the calendar year.
Da ste mi prije deset godina rekli da ću diplomirati među najboljih 10% studenata na prestižnom fakultetu i imati priliku ostaviti trag na našem javnom obrazovnom sustavu samo hvatajući se u koštac s dva mjecesa kalendarske godine, odgovorio bih vam: "Nee. Nema šanse". Još je uzbudljivije što ako možemo spriječiti pet mjeseci izgubljenog vremena samo prepravljajući dva mjeseca, zamislite mogućnosti koje možemo otključati ako se pozabavimo ostatkom godine.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)